Advance (V)

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

The Ork charge crashed into the Eleventh Infantry Regiment's defenses, sending a shockwave through Terk's orderly ranks.

For a time, the human soldiers stood firm like a dam before a flood, but the enemy pressure rose swiftly.

Hundreds, then thousands of Orks surged forward, gradually piling up before the defensive line.

At the gaps where the stalagmite barricades had shattered, Greenskins in crude armor shoved and rushed forward, attacking the human soldiers.

Soldiers were cut down one after another by whirling battle axes, or swallowed by the enemies behind them.

Rifles fired at close range, with no accuracy to speak of.

The enormous number of dead and wounded in the buffer zone between the two front lines forced the soldiers back. They tried to maintain formation, but the corpses of both sides formed a horrifying ridge, and the Orks were scrambling over it in desperation.

"Draw blades! Draw blades!"

Terk immediately gave the order.

Unlike ordinary regiments, the Black Legion's bayonets were meant only for enemies at range. When facing Orks, they preferred to use modified combat blades.

For a moment, the rasp of long blades leaving their sheaths rang throughout the area.

"You heard him? Hurry—"

Captain Fuo, one of his veterans, had turned to relay the order when a stray bullet pierced his skull. The old soldier immediately fell face-first to the ground.

At this distance, the guns in Ork hands were no longer toys, but genuine killing weapons. Huge-caliber bullets suddenly blanketed the Eleventh Infantry Regiment's position like torrential rain.

Everywhere Terk looked, people were being hit.

"Cover! Find cover!!"

No sooner had he finished than Terk felt one bullet graze his right leg and another scrape past his helmet.

"Damn Greenskins!"

With a roar, he charged forward, wielding a short sword in one hand and